elaine.rigoli
on Oct. 6, 2009
ERE Media, the parent company of The Fordyce Letter, announced Tuesday it has acquired SourceCon, the only live, in-person event for sourcing professionals in the world.
Over on The Source’s blog, the team shares its own thoughts on this acquisition, adding that “The Source will still be published as its own blog/newsletter.”
elaine.rigoli
on Aug. 3, 2009
St. Louis-based PracticeMatch says it is closing its three-year-old physician recruitment division and focusing only on sourcing and data services.
With this decision to step out of the recruitment arena, the company says it will focus on providing data to an in-house recruiter client base.
PracticeMatch says it uses physician databases with both graduating and practicing physician profiles, candidate tracking, a physician career center, and ancillary marketing services, including customized sourcing campaigns and direct marketing of physician opportunities.
Boris Epstein
on May 27, 2009
Yesterday in part 1 of this article, I discussed the best ways recruiters can immerse themselves in Twitter — from what to say, to how often, to what not to say, and beyond.
Today, I’ll discuss the second way to find value with Twitter. As a recruiter, Twitter is a must-have tool to find clients and candidates.
How, you ask? This isn’t easy, but if you’re the kind of recruiter who prides yourself on delivering distinct candidates to your client base, I would highly recommend taking the time and figuring it out.
Now that job boards have proved themselves virtually worthless and LinkedIn is well on its way to becoming the job board of a new generation, recruiters need to stay ahead of the curve. Twitter is actually a goldmine of information that can absolutely be tapped to find clients and candidates.
As far as finding candidates, they’re all on Twitter (or they will be). It’s just a matter of finding them.
I employ a researcher who I asked to spend an entire day on Twitter looking for candidates. As I expected, he came back to me 15 minutes later passionately confirming that Twitter sucks and that it’s worthless for finding candidates.
I responded by saying:
“I totally hear what you are saying and I don’t care. You have the entire day, so get comfortable and figure it out.”
I told him to imagine every single candidate and client to be on Twitter. They’re just masking their candidacy in the form of 140-character thoughts. Just like I don’t use the word recruiter in my thoughts, even though I’m clearly a recruiter, a software engineer might not use the word software engineer in her tweets. But she might tweet about her employer, upcoming conferences, and useful technologies.
The goal is to figure out what they’re tweeting and to search accordingly. That’s the art!!
The science is to use the appropriate Boolean search strings to conduct the search. For that, I recommend going to Shally or one of the other Internet sourcing gurus. They have tips and ideas for days!!
Once you find a candidate you are interested in, here is what to do:
The goal here would be to get followed back. That way, the next time you send out a note about a hot job or an MPC, this person will be sure to hear about it. And so the ball begins to roll.
In my year or so using Twitter, I have found it to be one of the most profound services in existence. The best way I’ve found to explain Twitter is to compare it to that Mel Gibson movie, “What Women Want,†where he gets to hear the thoughts of all women around him.
Of course, nobody wants to hear everybody’s thoughts about everything, but if you could figure out a way to slice-and-dice those thoughts and take advantage of the streams relevant to you and your marketplace, I think you will find Twitter to have a positive influence on your recruiting practice and life in general.
Good luck, and “May the Tworce be with you!!”
Boris Epstein
on May 26, 2009
I was having a conversation the other day with a recruiter colleague of mine and he was asking me about Twitter. He hasn’t used the service yet, but after hearing all the recent hype from Oprah, Larry King, and Ashton Kutcher, he felt like it was time to jump on the Twitter bandwagon.
I spent some time on the phone with him and basically explained that in my year or so using Twitter, I have found two distinct avenues in which a recruiter can benefit. Neither offers a quick fix, but following both can net significant value.
The first way to gain value from Twitter is to literally immerse yourself in the service and do exactly what the service asks of you. Tell Twitter what you are doing in 140 characters or less. This needs to be done often. You can’t allow yourself to stop no matter how little immediate impact you are getting out of it.
Robert Scoble, a major Twitter user, once tweeted that it takes a solid three to four months of Twitter use to finally see the light and actually get it. In hindsight, I 100% agree, because building up your profile by following others and having them follow you allows you to:
From a long-term perspective, I can’t think of another single service that can deliver this caliber of value.
Ok, onto the actual content — nothing is out of bounds, although the world is listening. Anything posted can and might be used against you at some point in the future. With that said, I talk about all sorts of things on Twitter.
Personal Perspective
Business Perspective
Other Things to Include
For those of you who are looking for some kind of method to this madness, the following formula could be a good one to follow for your first few months of use:
Twitter Diet — Just What the Doctor Ordered
If you follow this prescribed formula, in no time you will be able to blast out an MPC or send out a hot job to thousands of directly related prospects. Within seconds you will get responses and referrals, be able to have your finger on the pulse of your market, and more important, your market will have a pulse on you.
Imagine candidates and clients coming to you for a change. Over the long-term, I can’t think of anything more valuable. Word of warning: this prescription is highly addictive and there is the possibility of becoming a “Twittaholic.”
Editor’s note: In Part 2 tomorrow, discover the art & science in finding value with Twitter as a tool to find clients and candidates.
Mark Krajnik
on Mar. 18, 2009
We have never experienced this type of economic strife in our business before. There is no handbook for these times. Unemployment has exceeded 8%, the highest level in 26 years, and experts say it will grow to 10%.
We must be in survival mode, each and every day — focusing our time and energy on building new relationships with clients and candidates, working on deals that are closest to the money, and working with peak performers in your industry will keep your desk in motion and your boss off your back.
Here are five tips to surviving in a tight market:
Michael Lam
on Jan. 29, 2009
Having been on the client side as a corporate human resources professional, I have designed RFP processes and worked closely with hundreds of hiring managers as well as staffing service providers. Whether it was deciding on which recruitment and staffing provider to place on our vendor list or awarding contracts, direct hires or temps, our number-one consideration was the quality of candidates.
What does quality candidates mean from your clients’ perspective? Many things contribute to the candidate quality and they include:
At a high level, I see candidate quality supported by two parts within a recruitment process.
The first part includes activities that ensure that you have sourced, screened, and qualified a good candidate. These activities include employment testing, personality profiling, interviewing, and so forth. A solid recruitment process that is valid and reliable will help you consistently deliver on this part.
With a quality candidate at hand, this takes us to the second important part…to ensure that your candidates present well to your client!
Alan LaRotonda
on Oct. 30, 2008
The evolution of the Internet, teleworker technology, and the current shift in workforce demographics offer employment possibilities we once only dreamed about during our daily commutes. For a growing number of recruiters, working remotely is the new virtual reality.
I am one of a growing number of people who work virtually. A couple of years ago, I moved from Warwick, New York, to Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Warwick was a great place to live; a nice town about 65 miles northwest of NYC, but the cost of living was becoming absurd.
Mark Berger
on Aug. 4, 2008
It’s great you’ve found your way to The Fordyce Letter Network (have you added me as a friend yet?). Like you, many other recruiters are recognizing the importance of online social and business networking through sites like Fordyce Letter Network.
And many are also venturing beyond the “tip of the iceburg” sites like LinkedIn, Spoke, Plaxo, MySpace, and others for candidate sourcing and general networking purposes.
Here is a list of other social and business networking sites; my guess is that there could be more candidates for all of us somewhere in here. Try some and let me know of any luck that you have:
elaine.rigoli
on Jul. 21, 2008
Sharkstrike says it is launching an application/job keyword tool that allows employers, job boards, recruitment advertising agencies, and search engine marketing professionals to search only job-related keywords.
Sharkstrike CEO Jason Gorham says customers can “reach active and passive candidates in seconds” by placing all of their search engine marketing needs in one application.
The key component to the database is the data sharing between customers. Gorham says this gives clients the tools and capabilities that allows them to choose and advertise keywords to capture job seekers.
The service launches in September.
elaine.rigoli
on Jul. 8, 2008
When Google became a verb, it definitely crossed that invisible threshold into gold standard for most people searching for everything from news to candidates to sports to old flames.
But Google isn’t the be-all, end-all, turns out. And if it’s the only search engine you’re using, your method needs some updating, according to Shally Steckerl.
So step out of Google’s “library” and look around! “You need to use more than one search engine,” he says.
If you don’t get the answer the first time around, try another source, he recommends.
But if Shally can do it in “10 minutes or less,” you can too, and you’ll be back on the phone in no time. But first, check out this video to learn why Shally calls search engines “misleading” and ways to experiment with more search engine flavors.
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